@article {1309, title = {Baring Their Souls in Online Profiles or Not? Religious Self-Disclosure in Social Media}, journal = {Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion}, volume = {50}, year = {2011}, chapter = {744}, abstract = {This study measured the prevalence of religious self-disclosure in public MySpace profiles that belonged to a subsample of National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) wave 3 respondents (N = 560). Personal attributes associated with religious identification as well as the overall quantity of religious self-disclosures are examined. A majority (62 percent) of profile owners identified their religious affiliations online, although relatively few profile owners (30 percent) said anything about religion outside the religion-designated field. Most affiliation reports (80 percent) were consistent with the profile owner{\textquoteright}s reported affiliation on the survey. Religious profile owners disclosed more about religion when they also believed that religion is a public matter or if they evaluated organized religion positively. Evangelical Protestants said more about religion than other respondents. Religiosity, believing that religion is a public matter, and the religiosity of profile owners{\textquoteright} friendship group were all positively associated with religious identification and self-disclosure.}, keywords = {emerging adults, New Media, religious identity, self-disclosure, social media}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2011.01597.x/abstract;jsessionid=9B8826AC18C2E87FC1ED90C4479B63D2.f01t04}, author = {Piotr S. Bobkowski and Lisa D. Pearce} }